Hayley Frank had 16 points and hit four three-pointers to lead Mizzou in their loss to Kentucky, Thursday night at Mizzou Arena. (Photo courtesy: Mizzou Athletics)

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
Kentucky	28	18	11	21	78
Missouri	19	23	14	7	63

by Cedric Williams
Senior Editor

On a night when they were four players short due to disciplinary reasons, the University of Missouri women’s basketball suffered another tough loss on Thursday. The Tigers were defeated, 78-63, by the visiting University of Kentucky, in a key Southeastern Conference game at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Mo.

Kentucky led from start to finish, as Missouri fell behind big early and could never quite get over the hump, in a game many experts believed the Tigers needed to win to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.

Mizzou is now 17-11 on the season, and 6-9 in SEC play, while Kentucky raised its record to 14-11 and 7-8 in league play.

Heading into the month of February, the Wildcats were 9-11 and no one believed they had a shot a making the NCAA Tournament. But with Thursday’s win, Kentucky has now won five in a row and is looking like a team that might be worthy of the postseason spot most thought Missouri was going to get.

Mizzou, which was coming off a win over Mississippi State this past Sunday, has now lost five of its last six and six of its last eight.

That’s a stunning turn of events for the Tigers, who following a win over No. 1-ranked South Carolina to end December, then began January with a thrilling overtime win over Auburn, were 13-2, on the verge of being ranked in the top 25, and had some wondering if Mizzou might be selected as one of the 16 host sites for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament in March.

Since then, Mizzou has gone 4-9 — a period that has included separate three-game and four-game losing streaks. That’s why Thursday’s matchup was so vital. The Tigers don’t have many more chances to pick up more wins.

In fact, there’s only one more game left in the regular season — Sunday on the road at Florida. But the Gators are currently ranked No. 15 in the country and are coming off a two-game losing streak of their own and will be desperate to right their own ship heading into the SEC Tournament, which begins next week in Nashville.

Mizzou probably needs three more wins to assure itself a spot in the national tournament, and at least two more to have any reason to believe they have any shot at all. But any win will be tough to get for the Tigers, as every game left will be coming against a team fighting for its own postseason life.

On Thursday, Kentucky bolted out to a 25-7 lead, before Mizzou rallied to make the score 28-19 at the end of the first quarter. The Tigers controlled the action for most of the second quarter and were able to cut their deficit to 46-42 heading into halftime.

Mizzou outscored Kentucky again in the third — 14-11 — and pulled to within a point, at 57-56 to end the third. But that was as close as the Tigers would get, as they were outscored 21-7 in the fourth quarter and eventually lost the game by 15 points.

After allowing Missouri to get close in the second and third quarters, Kentucky ramped up its defense in the fourth, and held the Tigers to just two made baskets in the final 10 minutes. Mizzou was officially 2-for-11 and 0-5 on three-pointers in the fourth — a dismal 18 percent shooting.

A big reason why the Tigers went cold in the final period, may have been they were just worn out. Mizzou was without standout junior Aijha Blackwell (the team’s leading scorer and the SEC’s leading rebounder), senior LaDazhia Williams (Mizzou’s primary post scorer), and freshmen reserves Kiya Dorroh and Skylah Travis, all of whom were sitting out for “not living up to program standards.”

Head coach Robin Pingeton didn’t give any specific reason why the four players had to sit out, but did say disciplinary action needed to be taken. She also didn’t say if any of those players would be available for the matchup against Florida on Sunday.

Of the Tigers that did play on Thursday, junior Hayley Frank had a team-high 16 points, including four three-pointers to lead the Mizzou offense. Sophomore Jayla Kelly, who made her first career start in place of Williams, had a career-high 11 points as well.

Sunday’s game at Florida is scheduled to tipoff at 11 a.m., and will be televised live on the SEC Network.

Kentucky 78

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
10	Rhyne Howard	*	36	5-13	1-4	8-8	4-8	12	0	4	0	2	4	19
11	Jada Walker	*	32	4-11	1-5	0-0	0-1	1	1	3	0	0	1	9
03	Jazmine Massengill	*	36	3-8	0-1	2-2	0-0	0	2	7	1	0	1	8
12	Treasure Hunt	*	22	2-5	1-3	1-2	2-5	7	2	0	2	2	0	6
21	Nyah Leveretter	*	11	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-1	1	1	0	0	0	1	0
44	Dre’una Edwards		32	14-19	1-2	1-1	4-6	10	3	0	4	2	1	30
01	Robyn Benton		27	2-9	2-7	0-0	0-3	3	1	2	0	0	0	6
34	Emma King		4	0-0	0-0	0-0	1-0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1-1	2	0	0	1	0	0	0
	TOTALS	–	200	30-65	6-22	12-13	12-25	37	10	16	8	6	8	78

Missouri 63

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
43	Hayley Frank	*	31	6-11	4-5	0-0	2-3	5	4	1	2	0	0	16
32	Jayla Kelly	*	16	4-9	0-0	3-4	3-1	4	2	1	2	0	1	11
01	Lauren Hansen	*	38	4-13	2-6	0-0	0-3	3	1	2	0	0	1	10
13	Haley Troup	*	34	4-8	1-5	0-0	0-5	5	0	4	3	0	0	9
04	Mama Dembele	*	30	2-6	0-1	2-2	1-3	4	2	5	1	0	0	6
30	Izzy Higginbottom		29	3-7	1-2	2-2	0-1	1	0	0	1	0	0	9
20	Sarah Linthacum		12	1-2	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	1	0	1	0	0	2
02	Sara-Rose Smith		10	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	0	0	1	0	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	2-4	6	0	0	0	0	0	0
	TOTALS	–	200	24-56	8-19	7-8	8-24	32	10	13	11	0	2	63